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Iowa Pea Salad

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Grandma made this rich salad with fresh peas from the garden (frozen is fine), Tillamook Cheddar cheese, and hard-boiled eggs. The problem was I couldn’t find her recipe so a few years ago I came up with this.

I started with a recipe from the White Way Cafe in Durant, Iowa. The cafe is no more but the recipe lives on. I found the recipe in Jane and Michael Stern’s Square Meals. I swapped out the shredded Cheddar cheese with pea-sized cubes and replaced White Way’s boiled salad dressing with Grandma’s cooked salad dressing recipe. If you don’t like cooked dressing, Miracle Whip works fine.

Ingredients

  • 16 ounces fresh or frozen peas
  • 2 stalks celery, small dice
  • 4 ounces Cheddar cheese, cut into pea-sized cubes
  • 1/2 cup sweet pickle, small dice
  • 2 hard-boiled eggs, small dice
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 cups cooked salad dressing or Miracle Whip

Instructions

  • If your peas are fresh, cook until just tender, cool under running water
  • If using frozen peas, don’t boil. Soak peas in warm water until defrosted and drain well
  • Combine peas, celery, cheese, pickle, eggs, and salt in a large bowl
  • Gently fold dressing into the pea salad until combined
  • Salt to taste
  • Serve cold

Find it online: https://beardy.org/49-2/